Renaissance Technologies enjoyed a very strong month in July, as two of its three public funds moved back into the black. The East Setauket, New York-based firm’s Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund (RIEF) surged 6.7 percent for the month, and is now up 3.5 percent for the year. The RIEF fund, with a net-long investment strategy that trades both U.S. and non-U.S. equity securities listed on U.S. exchanges, was created to generate gross annual returns of 400 to 600 basis points, or 4 to 6 percentage points, above the Standard & Poor’s 500, over rolling three- to five-year periods using average leverage of about 2.5 to 1. The Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha Fund (RIDA), launched on March 1, 2012, surged 6.8 percent past month and is up 3.4 percent for the year. The RIDA funds trade global futures and forwards as well as U.S. and non-U.S. equities listed on U.S. exchanges. The typical holding period for equities averages more than one year versus four to six month for futures. The Renaissance Institutional Futures Fund (RIFF) rose 1.2 percent in July and is now up 3.9 percent for the year. The fund employs an absolute return investment strategy that uses leverage to trade global futures and forwards, aiming for low correlation to other asset classes.
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Another big winner in July was Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Fund. The multistrategy fund, managed by New York-based Eton Park Capital Management, was up 2.4 percent last month and is now up 10.7 percent for the year, making it one of the better-performing hedge funds this year.
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Shares of American Express jumped 6.3 percent Friday on reports that Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital Partners built a roughly $1 billion stake in the credit-card giant. The San Francisco firm has not made a regulatory filing, however. The $1 billion stake is much less than the 5 percent required to file a 13D. This is also how ValueAct started building its Microsoft stake several years ago. It is not clear what Ubben has in mind for the company. “ValueAct is a well-respected firm,” Marina Norville, a spokeswoman for AmEx, told Bloomberg. “We have been speaking with them, as we do with other investors, and look forward to continuing a constructive dialogue. At American Express, we are focused on building long-term value for shareholders, and are always open to the views and perspectives of our investors.”
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Daniel Loeb’s Third Point said in a regulatory filing that its stake in Baxter International is now 52.5 million shares, or 9.6 percent of the total. Earlier in the week, the New York-based firm said in a filing that it owned 7 percent of the health-care company and nearly 10 percent including stock equivalents.
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Little-known activist hedge fund firm LionEye Capital Management bought nearly 200,000 additional shares of Famous Dave’s of America, boosting its stake in the restaurant company to 17.7 percent. However, it is not the largest investor. We noted in June that New York-based Wexford Capital, co-founded by Charles Davison and Joseph Jacobs, had taken an activist stake in Famous Dave’s, pointing out that the firm owned 19 percent of the company. LionEye, which had about $2.5 billion in U.S. equity assets at the end of the first quarter, is headed by Stephen Raneri and is also based in New York. Last week, Famous Dave’s missed analyst expectations and named a new chief operating officer.
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Shares of SunEdison fell another 12 percent Friday after Credit Suisse cut its price target on the renewable energy company, to $35 from $45 the morning after the stock fell 25 percent. “Selling begets selling,” Credit Suisse said in a note to clients. However, the bank was actually fairly bullish on the company’s longer-term prospects. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital was the largest shareholder at the end of the first quarter. Other hedge funds among the top investors in SunEdison during the March period include Glenview Capital Management, Lone Pine Capital, Fir Tree, Third Point and Omega Advisors. It will be interesting to see which firms retained the shares at the end of the June when second quarter 13F filings are made public over the next week or so.
